Author: mohdjamil

Born in Kedah. Studied at Alam Shah, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia and King's College, University of London. Previously, acted as Head, Dept of Psychiatry, School of Medical Sciences, Universiti Sains Malaysia. Currently, works as Professor of Psychiatry at Sultan Abdul Halim Mu'adzam Shah International Islamic University, Kedah. Married and blessed with 4 grown-up children.

Accreditation is a good process in ensuring the quality of a university. In every process of accreditation, the aim is to ensure that institutions of higher education meet acceptable levels of quality in order to function effectively. There are many types of accreditation such as institutional accreditation, professional accreditation, and programme accreditation.

According to the Medical Act 1971, Medicine in Malaysia is regulated by the Malaysian Medical Council (MMC), a national licensing board which regulates the teaching and practice of medicine in the country.

In the beginning, MMC defines its core functions related to the registration and practice of medical practitioners. the period of compulsory service and the provisions related to the registration, practice and period of service provision.

Later, MMC has extended its role in collaboration with the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) of granting recognition to other medical schools in the country and overseas.

For the purpose of recognition of medical schools, the MMC/MQA endorsed a guideline on standards and procedures on accreditation developed in 1996, which was later realigned with international and regional guidelines, in 2000 and 2001. (Mahmud Mohd Nor).

In the Malaysia context, MQA uses accreditation as a basis for other parties including the Public Service Department (PSD) to recognize the qualification for a variety of reasons such as employment in the public service.

Programme accreditation is also used for other purposes such as to apply for loans from various funding institutions, for credit transfer, and to franchise the accredited programmes from an institution to another.

MQA deploys Malaysia Qualifying Framework (MQF) as an instrument that qualifies qualifications based on the set of criteria that are approved nationally and benchmarked against the international best practice.

MQA has set up a Code of Practise for Programme Accreditation (COPPA) which comprise guidelines on the preparation of documents for programme accreditation and assists assessment process for programme accreditation.

The process of acquiring accreditation starts with an application, date setting, visit an institution, tabling reports to various committees including Joint Committee MMC/MQA meeting and recommendation to the institution.

The time frame for the development of a quality assurance document is usually about 12 months, starting from the receipt of the task until the document is uploaded in the MQA website. The important stages of the development process are illustrated in the diagram.

The Impact study of Programme standards to stakeholders was conducted online from 1st to 30th Sept 2013 to obtain feedback on the impact of programme standards in curriculum development and review processes of a programme. Among the findings include five (5) years is agreed by the majority of respondents to be an appropriate duration for review of programme standards. The five years duration provides sufficient time to evaluate the content and importance of particular programme standards.

1. Ghost story makes millions of ringgit. Rich movie producers suck millions from viewers without them realising the amount of money they had lost. It’d just shown that people did believe in ghost, often more that they fear God.
2. Malaysians are Malaysians. Supernatural power is part of their belief system that make up their worldview. For Malaysians, even ghosts have religion: Jin Islam and Jin Kafir. They also have names too: pontianak, jembalang, puaka, pelesit etc.

3. Could it be that the ghosts are literally formed from our cognitive bias i.e. our consistent misinterpretation of the world? Even the designs of our mind are made such that it has two levels of processing i.e. the rational and the intuitive systems.
4. Generally, the rational system is slow, deliberate, abstract and logical whereas the intuitive system is quick, automatic, associative and emotional.
5. If you are getting scared because you believe there is a ghost, in your opinion which processing system is at work? Most likely when goosebumps start, the feeling and intimation has switched on the autonomic engines of your central nervous system. Once started, the chain of reactions occur.
6. The experience can be replicated in cinema. Oh, Yes, of course .. and it scoops million of dollars.

It is impossible to imagine the world without cities. Similarly, it is impossible too to imagine a city without people. That is how I feel when I stay in Putrajaya at night. Putrajaya offers architectural dynamism without much benefit to its function as a dynamic commercial center. Maybe it is not designed for commercial use but remembers, the city can bring people together with ideas, and experience in a new dynamic of human interaction.

I imagine if many people are working until the middle of the night like Tokyo city center in Putrajaya-Cyberjaya, then there will be a tremendous interaction in the state of the art building architecture with human beings, and hence put it to be a great investment worthwhile for the administrative city.

A city without people is very much similar to a university campus without students. Check it out during the end of semester holiday. Are we building a campus or a city?

I may have made a mistake here nevertheless don’t get me wrong. Sincerity is a strength; insincerity is always a weakness.

My suggestion for the future growth of Putrajaya is for the new government to capitalize on the new politic of Malaysia Baharu by making Putrajaya a center for political education, activism, and awakening. I am delighted at how the 61st National day was celebrated in Putrajaya.

Secondly, the myth of the lazy city, especially at night, has to be rebuked. Paying thousand to million of electricity bill just to brighten the city without embarking on substantial activities by the rakyat is a waste of money and resources.

Thirdly, perhaps the most controversial idea is to allow people to elect members of the city council. I have seen in Tokyo the election campaign to select the Mayor of Tokyo. Lorries were used to load campaigners in simple uniforms speaking from a loudspeaker.

(Image from the internet: Campaign using a modified van)

The reality of a new political landscape in Malaysia Baharu is the existence of a two-party system and two divided political territories.

Since the last 14th General election, the battle keeps going in the form of by-elections. In Sg Kandis, Seri Setia and Balakong, Pakatan Harapan (PH) won handsomely despite its inability to keep the 100-day promise. It is pretty obvious that the two forces are still at war especially when UMNO and PAS have formed close cooperation together.

Like it or not, UMNO and PAS have opened up to meet a new challenge. For PAS, the Islam-centric line it takes thus far has accommodated pretty well with the Malay-centric UMNO, even with some resistance shown by some quarters. In the process, MCA and MIC have lost their significance due to the failure to garner enough support from their respective communities and the split-up votes into various opposition parties as clearly demonstrated in the previous three by-elections.

There is no basis to worry that the two-party system would accelerate into major battles when “the winner turns into ashes and the loser turns into charcoal (“Yang menang jadi abu dan Yang kalah jadi arang“).

The rakyat has made the decision and for sure the winner has to carry out the responsibility in order to be re-elected in the 15th General election.

No way the government can stop the dissatisfied lots. Matters pertinent to their life like accelerating cost of living, protection to the right of the Malays, alleged selective persecution, to mention a few have to be answered to the satisfaction of the rakyat.

All in all, I believe PH as a party has won the battle and generally, the rakyat has won the war.

A 65-year-old lady, Mak Cik, comes to see me. She is perplexed, not sure how to start. I ask her about her family. Her husband, Pak Cik, is retired, in his 70s, still actively doing a property broker job.

Mak Cik is a housewife but not so active now. She keeps herself occupied doing house chores. For most of her time, she learns religion at madrassah and spends most of her time praying and fasting.

She is annoyed with the Pak Cik for not behaving like an elderly man. To her imagination, an elderly man should spend most of his time preparing for his afterlife. To her, the property broker has its own risk of bankruptcy and is seen as a risky business.

She is offended toward her eldest daughter who is marrying a Swiss and not obeying strict religious obligations and fails to educate her Muslim’s reverted husband on the proper conduct of a Muslim.

She is also preoccupied with another son who is a transgender and suffered from Bipolar Mood disorder.

Managing different perspectives in life is a difficult task. It seems that Pak Cik and Mak Cik do not share the same values and assumptions. For Mak Cik elderly period is a time to ponder, reflect and prepare for the afterlife (akhirat). To Mak Cik, work has its own limit but to Pak Cik works has no time limit.

Mak Cik is depressed and that makes her mind wander timelessly. Multiple family stressors added up to precipitate her depressive illness. The differential life perspective contributes relatively to a poor understanding of the illness. This eventually resulted in poor social support from the spouse that tend to perpetuate the depression. In the end, she may develop isolation and loneliness.

Life has to continue despite adversities. When time is perceived as limited, the social network provides a meaningful interaction and assistance.

To manage the problem, this couple has to adopt three successful separate processes, namely:

Selection: which refers to the patient focusing attention on fewer, more important goals e.g. rescaling/reconstructing goals. In fact, the couple has to focus their attention on narrowing the gap in life perspective.

Optimization. This involves engaging in goal-directed actions and means; such as investing time and energy into the acquisition, refinement, and application of goal-relevant means, seizing the right moment, persistence, acquisition of new skills/resources, and practice of skills. The couples have to invest their time in doing common tasks and hobbies.

Compensation. The last process maintains a given level of functioning in the face of loss and decline in goal-relevant means by the patient investing in compensatory means. In some cases, when the couple arrives at some mutual understanding, life continues, business as usual.